We go on dry lakes that are/were used for strafing and bombing practice. We are always finding weird pieces of whatnot. For the longest time, we have been finding a light metal grey bar, about an inch square, and eight inches long. The other night, we were camping, and tossed a sliver of it on the fire.
It was magnesium. Good thing we didn't toss the entire bar.
Steve
I have a jar of magnesium shavings and I often burn it for kids entertainment. While, I would say, it is fun to watch, I would not call it spectacular. I think that your 1x1x8" bar would make a fun little fire, but nothing beyond this, unless you converted the whole mass into shavings. Then it would be just a bigger fire.
i
Spray a little water on it while burning and see what happens.
Sounds like a fun thing to try!
Adobe doesn't have a player for the OS I run here at Mom's pad but if it's a lathe or mill fire -I'm sure it's exciting. There was a FADAL on Ebay a while back that appeared to have been involved rather fully in a mag fire. I wonder if anyone picked up on it. LOL
Engineman and I was in my yard some years ago while melting an engine block for the metal. We got distracted pounding sand and the pot got a bit hot. The magnesium mixed in the Al for strength caught fire. It was glowing white when we turned around.
All I could do - and Engineman thought of it or agreeded - dig a hole in the dirt and set it in. The SS pot was fried and had a hole.
We noticed something was wrong when the Aluminum was draining out the gas inlet hole at the bottom of the furnace!
Mart> >>> >>>> We go on dry lakes that are/were used for strafing and bombing
If you have much magnesium, stand well back when you spray on water. It's akin to tossing gasoline on a fire.
Been there, done that, got the burned arm hair for my trouble.
Harold
Guys at a company I used to work for had an annual wild weekend camping event. MAgnesium gearbox casings were placed on the fire for a bit of fun and everyone sat around watching wearing sunglasses. It was the cans of beer that exploded in the fire that sent four or five to hospital with burns.....
Silly buggers!
Are there any chemists here? I ask because im interested to know why water makes it burn so much hotter/faster etc. Could it be that oxidising magnesium splits water, ie hydrogen oxide into its seperate parts? of oxygen and hydrogen? IF it does it might just be a keyto maing a car run on water if the magnesium acts as a catalyst at its burning temperature.. One lives in hope!!! Await an answer. Ted In Dorset UK.
We recently had a customer order some magnesium parts; a couple of machinists were burning some chips, and they poured water on it and it flared up! Evidently Mg burns hot enough to actually extract the O2 from
2H2O or whatever; unfortunately we didn't have a CO2 fire extinguisher on hand, or I'd have checked if Mg would even eat CO2.Anybody ever tested that?
Thanks, Rich
I think it's just that Mg is such an aggressive reducing agent. I wonder if anybody's experimented with CO2?
This is just too stupid to warrant any kind of response.
Good Luck! Rich
I haven't, but extinguishers for magnesium fires contained a black product much like sand way back when. They may be different now. My experience was back in the late 50's, early 60's, when I was employed in a missile facility. Many of the components for the missile (Sergeant) were made of magnesium.
We had one magnesium fire in the largest lathe in the shop, a 48" sliding gap bed LeBlond. It was extinguished by the black material. Unfortunately, I did not witness the event as it occurred on the opposite shift.
Harold
Apologies if you found my thoughts stupid. I have always found it pays to ask 10 questions of which 9 turn out to be stupid with 1 that leads to a breakthrough to a solution to an problem that has been insoluable so far. Finding answers to problems has made me a lot of money over the past 45 yrs. Has anyone tried using magnesium as an anode for splitting water? If it has a very fast reaction at 1000'c what might happen at say 400 ? or 200'c.? Ted in Dorset UK. Who doesnt give up.
No such thing as a stupid question - there are stupid answers though ;)
Dave H.
Magnesium isn't a catalyst, it's consumed in the reaction. Platinum and some 'rare earth' oxides catalyze combustion, as in Coleman lantern mantles and flammable vapor detectors for boats.
Mg would be more valuable in a rechargeable battery, as would aluminum, but so far only lithium is safe enough for general use, and only because embedded computer control is practical for the higher- performing systems.
Are you a product of a "Two Cultures" educational system?
jsw
Magnesium isn't a catalyst, it's consumed in the reaction. Platinum and some 'rare earth' oxides catalyze combustion, as in Coleman lantern mantles and flammable vapor detectors for boats.
Mg would be more valuable in a rechargeable battery, as would aluminum, but so far only lithium is safe enough for general use, and only because embedded computer control is practical for the higher- performing systems.
Are you a product of a "Two Cultures" educational system?
jsw
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I remember an experiment from high school - some platinum foil or mesh in a flask with some ethanol. Warming the flask up with your hands the Pt would catalyse the burning of the alcohol - it would pop and extinguish the flame, the cycle repeating until the fuel was all consumed.
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Yes, Mg will "burn" with CO2. Bob
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Platinum lowers the energy barrier that prevents combustible materials from spontaneously igniting, but it doesn't increase the efficiency.
The requirement for original research to get a Ph.D. means that many very talented people are thoroughly examining every dark corner of science, not just the ones with commercial potential. The chance that they missed something is quite low.
jsw
Hi JSW, Ive never heard of the "two culture" system, so googled it and CP Snow gave a lecture on it at Cambridge some time back! I guess ive been lucky with the education Ive had, A UK grammar school,a through grounding in the basics.
1 year in art and drama 2 yrs to graduate level aviation engineering, 10 yrs in ethical sales and marketing, Then I decided to work for myself designing and making applied art items. Always pushing the boundaries of the work. Did that for 35 yrs, then 10 yrs to date in engineering consultancy and troubleshooting. Does that make sense? Ive certainly had a great time and done everything ive wanted to. And still do the applied art work. Ted.PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.